Guest column: Special thanks to a special community for its generosity

Posted: Wednesday, November 23, 2005

By Gregg Schroeder

Last Thursday evening at Grayson Stadium, almost 300 people filled a tent on a ball field to hear the results of this year's United Way fund-raising drive for our community. It was a cold evening, but one by one, community volunteers from our four-county region reported red-hot results.

In the end, a record-breaking, community-wide campaign of $7,327,000 was announced, but not before some pretty amazing things took place.

After an inspirational performance of our National Anthem was sung by the choir of Savannah Arts Academy, a special tribute was made to 10 soldiers in attendance from Fort Stewart and Hunter. These guys (and ladies) had just returned from Iraq less than a month ago where they were dodging bullets in support of our country and freedom in the world.

One of the soldiers brought his newborn baby with him. I later found out he got the news of the birth of his child from the Red Cross message system while in Iraq only several months ago. I knew that Army Community Services was also one of our local human service agencies participating in the campaign, and I was reminded of the good work they do with many of the families of the soldiers left behind.

Before the end of the evening, Lt. Col. Carl Coffman commented to me the special appreciation he felt from our community for the troops. He said it was a 12-months-a-year feeling, not something that comes and goes as it seems in other parts of the country.

This year's campaign was led by Mike Kemp of Sea Island Bank. Mike wore a baseball uniform to the event in support of our theme this year, "With Your Support, Success Will Come," based on the movie "Field of Dreams." Mike may have worn a baseball uniform around town these past 10 weeks, but he displayed bulldog determination in reaching, and surpassing, his original goal of $7.1 million. His margin of victory was the largest in recent history for our United Way.

Mike will be the first to tell you it truly was a team effort, and the cast of characters who helped United Way was as special as the city is itself. One was Joe Dobransky from The Landings. Joe entertained the audience with an original song, "You Can Be A Beacon If You Let It Shine," and was accompanied on stage only with his stump fiddle. Joe, along with Bill Ulmer and a group of volunteers, raised a record amount of more than $530,000 from community-minded citizens at The Landings.

There are many parts to our community. Every part contributed in some way as volunteer after volunteer proudly came on stage to announce his or her results. This included business, city and county governments, health care, schools, and professionals such as physicians, lawyers, accountants, engineers and dentists. It also included labor, clergy and individuals, working or retired, not associated with any company.

The single largest financial supporter was Gulfstream, which contributed $1.2 million from its employees and corporation. Many other companies, including Colonial Oil and Kerr McGee, had outstanding results. It was truly a night to be proud of the community we call home.

Sometimes you hear only the negative aspects of Savannah and our surrounding cities. But would we really rather live any place else?

This is our home. Let's all make it a better place to live by continuing to contribute or volunteer with the charity of your choice. United Way is one of the ways to be part of the solution, to take pride in your community. When you support United Way, you are supporting the health of our entire human service community. United Way dollars stay in Bryan, Chatham, Effingham and Liberty counties. Thanks to the Jenkins Trust and other income, 100 percent of the contributions we receive goes to the 86 programs and 38 agencies serving our community.

On a personal note, my family and I had some reservations about moving to this community three years ago. Compared to where we lived before in Atlanta and Kansas City, it was a relatively smaller town, but it had national recognition.

I'm now proud to call Savannah home. I'll enjoy Thanksgiving this year with my wife and our three children, grilling a turkey, enjoying the smell of the Savannah saltwater marsh, and giving thanks for our Christian faith, our family, our community and those 10 soldiers I met under the tent.